Our National Detention Hotline received a disturbing call from a Black immigrant in an ICE prison who had experienced physical abuse at the hands of the guards.
Hotline volunteers acted quickly to file a civil rights complaint on his behalf.
In an interview, our Director of Visitation Advocacy Strategies, Sofia Casini, highlighted the connection between the abuse of Black immigrants in ICE prison with abuse at the hands of law enforcement.
Casini stated, "Our nation just went through a year of examining the ways people in authority harm Black people while claiming, 'I was at risk. This person was a threat' — people who are Black and unarmed and at their mercy."
She added, "I would ask what justification they had that they felt there was a risk....It's not acceptable that Black immigrants in [immigration detention] are left to suffer this level of violence because others state that they were afraid."
Casini also spoke with the @MiamiHerald, saying, “We know that many who bravely come forward, like [Herby Yves] Pierre-Gilles, are retaliated against. They’re placed in solitary confinement, transferred,...or...deported so that their testimony does not see the light of day."
Pierre-Gilles added, "One of the biggest issues that [is] usually swept under the rug and hardly ever brought to the public’s attention is the physical abuse and mistreatment us immigrants received by the hands of the same government officials who took oaths to protect us...
...I pray and hope that my situation will be brought to the public’s attention so that a change can be made for the better.”
The complaint was submitted on behalf of 3 Cameroonian asylum seekers at Winn Correctional Center who were physically assaulted, choked, beaten and handcuffed in attempts to force their signatures.
One of the men has tested positive for COVID and another has been exposed to COVID. All 3 face life-threatening consequences if deported to Cameroon. #FreeThemAll#BlackLivesMatter
This morning, we @ Freedom for Immigrants and @DetentionWatch Network delivered a letter to @POTUS on behalf of 217 groups demanding President Biden address COVID-19 inside immigration detention by releasing everyone within the first 100 days #FreeThemAll
Our organization has documented at least
199 instances of retaliation at 49 detention facilities since the onset of the pandemic, underscoring the systemic nature of this abuse. You can follow our up-to-date COVID-19 reporting at freedomforimmigrants.org/covid19
Throughout the pandemic, the average length of detention has increased–meaning that people are trapped in prolonged detention in these lethal conditions. As a result, FY 2020 was the deadliest year in ICE detention since 2005, with 21 reported deaths, eight due to
COVID.
“The abuse we are witnessing, especially right now against black immigrants, isn’t new, but it is escalating," said @ChristinaFialho, executive director of @MigrantFreedom.
"...we began to receive calls on our hotline from Cameroonian and Congolese immigrants detained in [ICE] prisons across the country. And they were being subjected to threats of deportation, often accompanied by physical abuse.”
Then ICE began transferring these individuals from immigrant prisons around the country into the immigrant prison in Pine Prairie, Louisiana where they were forced to sign fraudulent paperwork to facilitate their deportation to Cameroon and tortured until they acquiesced.
DHS itself is confirming what we & other immigrant rights advocates have been documenting since the start of the #COVID19 pandemic: that transfers are deadly & have contributed to #COVID19 outbreaks.
1. Stop inter-facility transfers during the pandemic 2. Stop jail/prison to ICE transfers during the pandemic 3. Require ICE to comply with CDC guidance 4. Require ICE to release people to comply
@JeffMerkley@MichaelBennet At least 7 of the 17 people who have died in ICE custody since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in ICE detention via a transfer from state or federal jails or prisons after completing a criminal sentence or being paroled out.
🧵 #Thread: 6 mo. ago we launched a #COVID19 Hotline to document abuses in ICE prisons. Since then, we’ve received over 10k calls. We just published our latest report analyzing data from the Hotline, attorneys, advocates & media reports.
At least 7 of the 17 people who have died in ICE custody since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in ICE detention via a transfer from state or federal jails or prisons after completing a criminal sentence or being paroled out.
1. Stop inter-facility transfers during the pandemic 2. Stop jail/prison to ICE transfers during the pandemic 3. Require ICE to comply with CDC guidance 4. Require ICE to release people to comply
@JeffMerkley@MichaelBennet Cipriano Chavez-Alvarez, who had lymphoma, diabetes, kidney disease, and hypertension, became the 7th person to die of #COVID19 in ICE custody.